The Winners in the Contest for the Best Student Start-Up of UNWE 2025 Were Announced
The winners in the Contest for the Best Student Start-Up of UNWE 2025 were awarded at an official ceremony. The event was organized on the occasion of the 105th Anniversary of UNWE and was under the patronage of the Rector Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov.
The Contest was launched at the beginning of February. After assessing the submitted works, a competent jury determined the finalist teams to participate in the final stage of the Contest.
Special guest of the event was Sabine-Saint Rose, Secretary General of the European Alliance of Universities ENGAGE.EU, part of which is the UNWE.
In the event took part the Rector Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov, Vice Rector for International Affairs, Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova, Vice Rector for Institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies, Assoc. Prof. D.Sc. Michael Musov, Institutional Coordinator of ENGAGE.EU and lecturer at the Accounting and Analysis Department, Chief Assist. Dr. Antoan Shotarov, lecturer at the Economics Department and member of the Organizing Committee of the Contest.
The moderator of the event Chief Assist. Dr. Antoan Shotarov greeted the participants and noted that the event was held with the support of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, the Ministry of Innovation and Growth, the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, the Fund of Funds, the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises, Innovation Capital.
The Rector of UNWE Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov opened the final stage of the Contest and emphasized: "I would like to note that among us is Mrs. Sabine-Saint Rose, Secretary General of the European Alliance of universities ENGAGE.EU, who was very excited about the fact that our university has such a Contest for start-ups and young people who participate in it. It is also part of our work in ENGAGE.EU, all partner universities in the Alliance have a similar ecosystem for entrepreneurship. It is the policy of our university Managing Body to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit to be developed during the studies. I am happy to see a lot of young people, future millionaires, in the hall, but I want to tell you that three years ago there was no Start-up Hub at the UNWE, there were no such initiatives and competitions. With the help of our business partners and the Startup Hub we have built at the University our students have the chance to develop and implement their creative ideas".
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| Chief Assist. Dr. Antoan Shotarov, Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov and Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova |
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The Secretary General of the European Alliance ENGAGE.EU Sabine-Saint Rose greeted the participants for the initiative and pointed out that she was very happy that such events were taking place at the UNWE. She pointed out that only together we in Europe could be competitive with North America. Because the main thing that North America does when it sees a succeeding startup is to join it by investing and attracting, thus taking the best ideas from Europe and developing them. So together we must try to reverse this trend with concrete actions and initiatives.
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| Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yanko Hristozov, Sabine-Saint Rose, Assoc. Prof. D.Sc. Michael Musov /from the left to the right/ |
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| Sabine-Saint Rose visited the UNWE Start-Up Hub |
"It is encouraging that 13 teams have reached the final. We had originally decided to allow only 10 teams but having in mind the wonderful ideas you presented, we expanded the number of the winners. I am confident that we will see many good ideas today. This is actually the apogee of everything we do because for some time we had a mentoring coffee with the Fund of Funds where a representative from the organization was coming to advise our students, then this initiative continued with other representatives from the ecosystem advising students who want to develop their startup idea. I wish success to all and let the best ideas win", said Prof. Dr. Tsvetana Stoyanova, Vice-Rector for Institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies of UNWE.
The representatives of the jury - Dr. Snezhana Yotinska, Chief Expert at the Bulgarian Stock Exchange, graduate and former lecturer at the UNWE, Ognyan Vassilev, Manager of The Revenues Factory, graduate of UNWE and organizer of one of the largest conferences “Startup in Bulgaria” - also greeted the participants. On behalf of Boyko Takov, Executive Director of the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises, the attendees were greeted by Marian Stoyanov, Director of the SME Development Directorate and Pavel Lisev, Executive Director of the Fund of Funds.
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| Dr. Snezhana Yotinska, Ognyan Vassilev, Marian Stoyanov, Pavel Lisev |
A Greeting Address to the participants in the event was received by the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev. "I welcome the efforts of the academic community of UNWE to engage and support the young innovators to seek new applications of knowledge. Today's event is one more step towards our common objective – the educational and scientific centers to continue creating the necessary conditions for the development of talents. It is a strategic objective that will bring Bulgaria among the leading countries in the age of innovation", is said in the President's Greeting Address.
After the opening part, the event continued with the presentation of the students' work.
At the first place in the Contest for the Best Start-up of UNWE 2025 was ranked the team named Nexaai composed of Alex Danov and Alexandros Hadzhy. The team presented a project of an AI-based business analytics platform.
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The second place occupied the Medici team consisting of David Brumchiysky and Ivaylo Yankolov. The team presented an idea for the development of a global health application for prevention and diagnosis based on AI.
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Third place was for the team Mental Buddy composed of Kristina Ruseva, Maria Petrova, Katrin Korsacka. It presented an idea for a mobile app that connects people recovering from sports injuries who suffer from lack of motivation with others who go through or have gone through the same injuries.
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In addition to recognition for the creative ideas, there were also motivating prizes for the winners of the three teams.
The winners in the Contest received cash prizes from the Rector of UNWE - BGN 400 for each member of the first place team, BGN 300 for the members of the second place team and BGN 200 for each member of the third place team.
The Bulgarian Stock Exchange will invite the winning team to participate in the sixth edition of its accelerator programme - beamUp lab.
Ognyan Vassilev announced that the winning team will be invited to participate in the Startup in Bulgaria Conference on 17-19 October 2025, where after a competition, a competent jury will determine a team to participate in the Startups Conference in San Francisco, where the grand prize is 1 million dollars as an investment. Innovation Capital will have meetings with the top three teams with the opportunity to fund their idea immediately. The representative of the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small and Medium Enterprises confirmed the organization's willingness to advise on opportunities that the State, through them, provides to finance these ideas.
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| Sabine-Saint Rose also visited the Inter-University Center for Career Development /ICCD/ |
